El Paso/Las Cruces News, Weather, Sports and Entertainment – KDBC 4 – We are CBS! | Mayor Cook Saves City From Possible Embarrassment
On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics.Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, ration[aliz]ing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600 people were murdered in Juarez.
City council members realize it may be extreme to legalize drugs like heroin, but others like marijuana could make sense. Currently, marijuana accounts for 70 percent of the drugs coming across the border. “Any business will tell you, you take a 70 percent hit to your pocket book, you’re going out of business,” said Councilman Steve Ortega.
Cook says he understands where the council members are coming from, but he’s afraid El Paso would become a national laughing stock if he went to Washington and asked people like Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to look into legalizing drugs.
“I don’t think anybody thinks we should be able to run down to the corner drug store and be able to buy heroin or cocaine or methamphetamines,” said Cook.
The resolution is expected to be put back on the agenda next Tuesday. City Council can either overrule the veto with a super majority vote or revise the resolution.
The headline of this story tells you all you need to know about how the War On (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs occupies a position in the public discourse that is considered unassailable. The City Council’s resolution just asks the federal government to debate drug legalization, and the headline reads: “Mayor Cook Saves City From Possible Embarrassment” – because nobody serious would ever question the Drug War! How embarrassing to have the gall to ask Senator Hutchinson to even think about investigating alternatives to spending $50 billion a year trying to stop people from using drugs!
And notice how the mayor jumps right to corner convenience stores selling heroin, crack, and meth on the shelves as a model of legalization, when clearly the council was focusing on the 70% of Mexican drug traffic that is cannabis. Talk about embarrassing! Probably because the mayor realizes that in the western United States, there is majority support for taxing and regulating cannabis similar to alcohol and ending federal penalties for adult cannabis use.
They interviewed one of the councilmen on CNN today and gave a very favorable opinion on at least discussing the issue. The report included data from a Harvard study suggesting legalizing drugs would save the government $77 Billion. It’s the first reporting I’ve seen in the main stream media that has been favorable towards drug and more specifically marijuana legalization. Perhaps it’s a sign of a changing attitude in the media. If we do get legalization, it will probably happen more suddenly than we might expect, all it really takes is some positive press and political will.